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Fast & Furious 8 Has Officially Begun Filming in Cuba

Fast 8/Fast & Furious 8is the next installment in the highly-lucrative Fast and the Furious movie franchise and will serve as the followup to last year's Furious 7: the highest-grossing addition to the street car racing-turned globe-trotting action series yet, as well as the film that provided a sendoff to the late Paul Walker and his character, Brian O'Connor. The Fast & Furious brand will nevertheless continue on for (at least) an additional three movies, with Fast & Furious 10 currently scheduled to arrive in time to commemorate the property's 20th anniversary in 2021.

First things first, though; Fast 8 will once again star Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto, alongside his wife Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and the members of their extended "family", Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej (Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges). The plot for Fast 8 - which, like the last several Fast & Furious installments, was scripted by Chris Morgan - remains under wraps for now, though the movie's storyline is reported to involve Furious 7 antagonist Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), in addition to a new mystery villain played by Oscar-winner Charlize Theron.

Other new Fast & Furious franchise cast additions in the eighth installment include Scott Eastwood (in a TBA role) and Kristofer Hivju (best known for playing Wildling Tormund Giantsbane on Game of Thrones). We may learn more about their roles in the foreseeable future, as Fast 8 is now officially in production in the country of Cuba. Universal Pictures confirmed that news through the official Fast & Furious Twitter and Instagram accounts (see the video below).

Similar to the most recent Fast & Furious installments, Fast 8 will be fully international in its scope. The production is slated to film in not only Cuba, but also Iceland - with the site Film Starts having already posted photos from the Fast 8 set that is being prepared ahead of time in that country. Fast 8 will also be filming in New York and Cleveland (with the latter set to help "play" the Big Apple in Gray's Fast & Furious movie) in the next few months too. However, it's not yet clear whether the film will take place primarily in one of these locations - or spread its running time out evenly to these various settings.

Gray, for his part, has already proven adept at combining relatively intimate character drama with action/thrills, with his work on such movies as The Negotiator, Straight Outta Compton and The Italian Job in the past. His experience on the latter should prove most useful during production on Fast 8, given the similarities between the two films - both feature car racing sequences in urban locations, heist genre elements, character ensembles, and so forth. Much like Justin Lin and James Wan before him, Gray may yet bring enough new to the table here to keep the Fast & Furious series feeling fresh and inspired even after a grand total of eight movies (and counting).